Fate
by NoName99
Summary: The group embarks on a new journey but Dart faces problems of his own
1. The Summoning

** Disclaimer**: I don't own LOD or any of the characters in it. Any of my own original characters I will list in my bio. R and R please.

Albert watched as his troops were slaughtered one by one on the battlefield, and he could no longer stand to watch the senseless bloodshed of his own men. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a green gem. With a flash of green light, he had transformed into a dragoon. Before any enemy soldier had the chance to even draw their sword, Albert had already attacked with his staff. Swinging, spinning, and thrusting his sword at any soldier that wasn't dressed in red. After swinging a bone crushing blow to the last soldiers head, he looked up from the bloody puddle into an open field, and saw one soldier left dressed in all black, wearing a hood, and holding a sword down by his side. Albert drew his staff to ready position, and charged after the last standing soldier. Albert raised his staff above his head two steps away from his enemy, and quickly swung it downward, clashing against his enemy's sword. His enemy then a quick step to the right, and defended a swing from Albert. Albert jumped back two steps, and thrust his sword forward, entirely missing his target. With his entire body undefended, his enemy thrust his sword into Albert's side, and too Albert's surprise, the sword had penetrated the Dragoon armor. At that moment, Albert knew the sword was none other than the Dragon Buster. He fell straight to his knees and dropped his staff, as he transformed from Dragoon, to a human. Before he could do anything else, he completely collapsed on the ground. My eyes then opened, and sat straight up in bed, looking at the wall at the foot of the bed. I looked around the room, and the only other person there was Shana, sleeping soundly. I lied back down in hopes of having a more peaceful rest through the rest of the night, and didn't fall back asleep till several minutes later.  
  
Near sunset of the next day, Albert and I were standing on the north wall of the fort, waiting for the next attack to begin. Albert turned to his loyal soldiers and said, "Men, this battle means more than you can imagine. These woods are only about a few miles away from the royal city, and if the enemy seizes these woods, our city would be placed in immediate jeopardy. With that said, first wave, ready your crossbows!" Albert walked down the row of soldiers armed with crossbows, as they readied the first bow. He then turned to his sharp shooter, and gave him the signal to ready his bow. Albert then returned back to the edge of the wall, and looked into the forest, in hopes of spotting a foolish soldier exposed in any way. "Dart, I don't have to explain to you how important it is that we win this battle."  
  
"You know Albert; I don't understand why Doel loyalists had to start this whole mess months after we killed Doel. I mean, you'd think they be smart enough to do it right afterwards."  
  
"Come on Dart, don't be an idiot. Think about it. You're loyal to your leader, and you find out he's killed. Most of your high ranking officers have either been killed, deserted, or we just told them to leave. So you don't have a person in charge...you're not going to have a single clue of what you're supposed to do. So you wait till someone strong enough decides to stand up and take charge. That's exactly what's happening."  
  
"No, what's happening is they're all drunk. Look at that guy, trying to hide in the bush two feet away from that big tree," I told him this as I pointed to the enemy soldier, and Albert gave me a look as if I had lost all of my sanity.  
  
"Dart, what in the world are you talking about?"  
  
"For a King, and a person in charge of an entire kingdom army, you are really pathetic," I then snatched a crossbow from one of his men, and shot the soldier that no one else caught.  
  
"My god, how did you catch that."  
  
"He was impossible miss. The guy had been sitting there staggering in those bushes since you've been lecturing your men all morning. Like I said, they're all drunk," Albert just snickered at this.  
  
"Dart, even in a situation as serious as this, you always manage to stay humorous."  
  
"That's because I'm not traveling all over the globe trying to save the world from being destroyed by a winglie with vengeance."  
  
"Well as simple as this may seem, don't lose your temper. You've been having a bad habit of doing that lately. We'll use the same battle strategy we've been using. We'll start the attack, and then you transform into a Dragoon and finish the rest," Albert then watched as countless numbers of troops began to charge towards the fort ready to battle. "This is it Dart. First wave! Crossbows...set!" the first wave of shooters all came towards the wall, and set there crossbows on the wall. "Aim!...fire!" and every man in the first wave shot there bow at any person charging towards the wall. "First wave, rearm yourself. Second wave, approach!" The first wave of shooters walked back from the wall, and the second wave approached with their bows loaded into the crossbow. "Second wave, set.! Aim! Fire!" the second wave fired their bows at any enemy soldier. Albert continued this method until the fifth wave had fired their bows, then the first wave returned to the wall. "Charge!" The gates of the fort then opened, and Albert's troops began to fight off enemy soldiers trying to penetrate the fort. "Dart, whenever you're ready." I looked at Albert, then closed my eyes. When they opened, I had transformed into a Dragoon. I drew out my sword, and flew down to the battlefield, and was knocked out of the air by something. I rolled on the ground into a tree, and stood up. Before I had a chance to get back in the air, I was again knocked off my feet hard enough that the tree I hit cracked and broke in half. When I returned myself to ready position, I was facing another Dragoon, only he was a foe. He had on blue dragon armor, which meant he had the Blue Dragoon spirit, which belonged to Meru. Realizing the possibilities of how he could have gotten the spirit, my anger grew, and I ran towards him, swinging my sword senselessly.  
  
"My my, someone's angry aren't they?" Ignoring what he said, I continued to swing my sword, and he defended every swing. Something purple then flew down and rammed the person right off of his feet. When the something finally came to a stop, I noticed it was Haschel as a Dragoon. When the enemy rose to his feet, he tightly gripped his sword his sword, and flew into the air. Haschel and I tried to follow, but our feet had been trapped to the ground by ice. Trying even harder, I managed to free my feet from the ice, and sore towards the mysterious fighter, when meteors started raining down towards me. I knew that was impossible unless he had retrieved the golden spirit. Not letting that stop me, I flew faster towards him, and with little space between me and him, and as I began to swing my sword, I was hit by a meteor and sent hurling back towards the ground. I thought to myself how this would have been so much easier if I wouldn't have destroyed the Divine Dragon Spirit. Haschel then flew upwards, and started throwing punch of punch, and I only could watch in frustration as he the enemy dodged every time. Losing my patience, I returned to my feet, and went to assist Haschel. As I flew upwards, Haschel went flying by me towards the ground. Within striking distance, I swung my sword, and managed a small cut on his face, and I begun to swing again but was struck by another meteor hurling me to the ground. Lying on the ground, I noticed Haschel was unconscious, and I couldn't find my sword. The Blue Dragoon started to dive towards me with his sword ready to strike, and only a few feet away from me, Albert zoomed by and slammed him into a tree. Pulling myself to my feet, and with a high level of frustration, I focused, and began to form a small ball of fire. As Albert stalled the enemy by constantly swinging his staff, and not giving the foe any time to defend himself, Albert eventually turned around and noticed what I was doing and flew out of the way. When the foe regained focus, he saw a huge flaming ball headed right towards him. Before he could move, the attack knocked him through a series of trees, and in a shallow pond. I slowly advanced towards the pond and noticed that the enemy had been knocked unconscious. Two huge glares of light began to illuminate, and within seconds, the Golden and Blue Dragoon spirits were hovering over the body. I quickly grabbed them, and then picked up the body.  
  
I walked toward Albert as he tried to help Haschel to his feet. "Here, take care of this. I still have to go help out on the field."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Albert responded to me, "I already did. I figured when you weren't out there fighting, something wrong happened. Dart, are you listening?"  
  
"Sorry, just...not feeling too well," we then flew back to the north wall of the fort, and dropped off Haschel and the enemy. Albert gave the two spirits to a soldier and told him to go place it in the vault.  
  
"This is now a time to celebrate Dart. We won't the battle, and drove them back. We've been waiting for something like this to happen for months. What do you think Dart?" I wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying. I then took off, and flew to another fort on the other side of the woods where Miranda was in charge. To my surprise though, I found the entire area in flames. Not knowing what to do or think, I clinched my fists and only stared at the flames. As the flames spread and grew, so did my anger. Everything then started to grow silent, and a huge roar filled the skies. A red dragon started to slowly fly through the sky, then came to a dead halt. Then, with a huge burst of speed, the dragon began to fly towards the flame infested site, and as it was hovering over the woods, something knocked me out of the air, and into the west tower of the fort. I tried to get up, but I feel unconscious. When I woke up, it was morning, I was groggy, and I found myself in my room. Albert then entered the room.  
  
"What happened?" I grabbed my head as it was slightly in pain.  
  
"You tried to summon the red eye dragon in the woods. Dart, I thought we had an agreement that as long as we all continued to transform into Dragoons, we wouldn't summon the dragons no matter what."  
  
"I don't know what happened. I just looked at the fire and thought Miranda had been hurt or something, and I just got so angry."  
  
"I told you before you went out there to start fighting to control your temper. You endangered all of us. If the dragons didn't make as much noise as they do, I probably wouldn't have stopped you, and you would have killed us all," and before I could respond, I started coughing. "Never mind for right now. I know hit you pretty hard, but I had to knock you unconscious to stop you from summoning that thing. So for right now, just try and rest."  
  
"Wait...Haschel..."  
  
"Haschel is just fine. He's already up somewhere in the fort. I think he's helping down in the infirmary."  
  
"What about the Dragoon spirits?"  
  
"They're somewhere safe. And don't worry about Miranda. I'm sending about a dozen soldiers over there to see what happened. Now rest." Albert then walked out the room, and closed the door behind me. When he left, I looked up at the ceiling in hopes that something about it would change. Anything that kept my mind from thinking about the other night would have helped. That night something came over me, and I didn't know what it was, but I wanted to know. I feared that if it happened again, the consequences would be worse than last night.


	2. The Second Summoning

Disclaimer: Wasn't sure if I need to put one of these in every chapter or not. Same as before though, don't own LOD. I don't own any of the characters or some of the plot used in my story.  
  
Please review. Thank you.  
  
Morning eventually arrived, and I woke up to the sound of the door creaking. I slowly sat up, and sat against the cold wall. With my vision still slightly blurry from my slumber, I could only recognize who the person was if they spoke. It couldn't have been someone I knew though. Before the person left the room, I was able to see clearly, and saw that it was only a soldier bringing in a tray of food. Not feeling hungry, I quickly suited up in armor, and walked to the north wall of the fort. Albert was fond of this wall only because it was the only direction the enemy could attack from. Albert was surprised to me up this early. "Dart, after a hit like that, I'm surprised you're still not asleep," I only nodded my head, and watched as he grabbed for his spear. As I began to spoke, we noticed a soldier running through the woods towards the first. At first, everyone at the edge of the wall armed their crossbows, but we quickly noticed the soldier was one of ours. "I could have sworn I sent at least twelve of you out."  
  
"You did, the other eleven captured, along with the fifty from the other fort, including Miranda. I caught one of the enemy soldiers and he said they ambushed the fort last night. They were planning on holding all of the soldiers for ransom." The thought of Miranda being captured ran through my head too many times, and my anger reached a higher height than the night before. I quickly transformed, and flew off over the woods in search of some sign of an enemy fort or camp. Luckily, not too far from the ambushed fort was another fort with the enemy flag waving at the top of a tower. I went straight into a nose dive while over the fort and crashed right through the ceiling. Every soldier that was present in that room scrambled for any object that could have resembled a weapon, and I quickly drew out my sword and pulled the closest soldier towards me with my sword to his neck.  
  
"I don't think I have to explain to you the situation. You're holding sixty one prisoners. Where are they?"  
  
"How do we know you're not bluffing?" I turned and faced the soldier near a door. I then slit the soldier's throat that I was holding, flew towards the soldier near the door, and thrust my sword through another one while headed there. I then grabbed him, and put my sword to his neck.  
  
"Does anyone else here think I'm bluffing?" every soldier stood silent except for one. While shaking nervously, he pointed to the door behind me. I released the soldier, and flew through the door and down the corridor to the very end. With no where else to go, I bust through a door on my right. Everyone in the room was creating or fixing some type of weapon. Two soldiers came charging after me, and I quickly thrust my sword through the one soldier on my right side, and threw the soldier on my left through the stone wall. I removed my sword from the soldier's chest, and took another soldier hostage. "Where are prisoners being held?"  
  
"Out of this door, back down the hallway, fifth door on your left," I then released him, and flew back down the hallway, counting doors on my way. At the other end of the hallway, a group of armed soldiers were prepared for battle with me. I rushed through all of them, and rammed through the fifth door, and took the first soldier I saw hostage. Everyone in the room dropped their weapon and slowly backed away. As I turned around and looked in the hallway, the men who were once prepared to give their lives lost their drive and stepped away from the door.  
  
"Judging by how everyone seems so passive right now, I'm assuming you must be a high ranking official."  
  
"Yes I am, a general to be exact. Don't hurt me; just tell me what you want."  
  
"You have prisoners. Sixty one of them."  
  
"Yes yes, we have prisoners."  
  
"I want all sixty one safely released. If hear any of them don't make it out of this fort alive, I will kill everyone of you Doel loyalists in this fort, starting with you, "he then look at one of the soldiers out in the hallway.  
  
"Alkavaz, move!" The soldier quickly ran from the doorway. Within seconds he returned. "Your comrades have been safely released. Go take a look outside if you do not believe me," reluctantly I freed the general, and flew through the stone ceiling to see if he had told the truth. Looking down at all of the soldiers, couldn't find Miranda anywhere out of all of them. I could feel myself slowly losing control of my anger, and I flew back down through the stone ceiling and caught the general as he was trying to arm himself. I threw him into a wall, and put a sword by his side. A soldier tried to attack me from behind, but I quickly formed a fire ball and shot it at him which knocked him through a wall.  
  
"Where's Miranda?"  
  
"I don't know a Miranda."  
  
"Where is she?!" a soldier standing behind a table to the right of me spoke up.  
  
"She, along with two other of your comrades is scheduled for execution in the west tower." No longer being able to tolerate any of the loyalists, I beheaded the general, and flew out of the room leaving and exploding flame. Hoping to reach the west tower in time, I flew through the wall and found the executioner with his axe raised high. I threw my sword through the executioner's chest. I slowly walked over, and pulled it out, and freed Miranda and the other two people. As we began to leave the room, I hurt a crossbow fired, and an arrow struck Miranda in the back of her leg. I quickly turned around before the person had a chance to re arm the weapon. I jammed the handle of my blade into the persons face, and shot him with his own crossbow. I quickly then checked back with Miranda and the other prisoners to see if Miranda was ok. She claimed she was fine, and the other two prisoners helped Miranda out of the fort, as I covered them. When they had made it safely out of the fort, I gave them all room as they helped Miranda across the field as they began to walk, I noticed a soldier lying on the ground struggling to raise his crossbow, and managed a final shot before his death. The soldier helping Miranda on her right side was struck in the back with the arrow and quickly fell. Sadly, I knew the person struck by the arrow. With overwhelming rage, I stood in the air with my fists clinched tightly; tight enough that I could feel the nails dig into the skin. Everything began to grow silent and still. A huge roar then sounded all through out the woods. A red dragon slowly began to fly through the sky and came to a complete halt. The dragon the picked up a huge burst of speed and flew through the sky towards the fort. Every soldier, enemy or friend, began to scurry and try to escape the striking range of the dragon. With the dragon not too far from striking the ground, I was again knocked out of the air only twice as hard into the ground. I tried to pick myself up, but collapsed back down into the dirt, and completely went unconscious.  
  
Eventually, I resumed semi-consciousness, because I heard voices, but couldn't open my eyes. I heard Albert speaking to someone, "This is the second time I've had to stop Dart from doing something like that. I wonder what's wrong with him." At that moment, I managed to open my eyes, but I instantly transformed into a Dragoon and charged after Albert. Albert, catching my movement from the corner of his eye quickly transformed and drew out his staff to defend my overhead attack. Continuing to strike and swing at Albert, forcing him to move out of the room, he only defended all of my attacks. Once I forced him to defend himself into the atrium, I took a step back, and charged to thrust my sword, but my Dragoon armor began to fade in and out from Dragoon to human, and eventually I found myself in my human armor. Albert then began to swing his staff towards me, and I dropped to the floor to dodge it. When I looked up, I found that I was back in my Dragoon armor. I quickly rolled from underneath Albert, and jumped to my feet. Albert came running towards me, and I put my arm up to block his attack and my armor faded back out to normal. Albert was already halfway through his swing and couldn't stop when he noticed. His staff struck me in the arm, breaking it instantly, and I dropped to the ground in pain. Albert quickly transformed back to human, and ran forward to check on me. "Dart, my god are you ok? I didn't know that you weren't a Dragoon."  
  
"Albert, its fine, just help me back to the bed for now," and Albert and a few soldiers helped carry me back to my room, and laid me in the bed. Albert quickly laid my broken arm out as straight as possible and told me not to move it. I was so worn out from everything that happened I immediately feel asleep. When I woke up, Shana was sleeping next to me. I was glad to see her because I didn't have the chance to talk to her for days but I didn't want to wake her up. Albert then walked into the room to check up on me.  
  
"Dart are you sure ok?"  
  
"Albert, I'm positive. It's just weird because I didn't mean to transform into a Dragoon and attack you."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well what I mean is that I didn't purposely fly out of bed and start swinging my sword at your. It's almost as if I was still conscious but I didn't have control over what I was doing."  
  
"But that would make no sense."  
  
"I know, because that's what's scary about it."  
  
"Well either way, you need to go back to getting some rest," Albert then left the room, and quietly closed the door behind him. At that point, I didn't have a clue about what was going on anymore. It was scary because during the fight with Albert, I phased in and out of Dragoon with no control over it. Then I remembered that in the morning, I had went on the rampage of freeing Miranda, and had summoned my dragon for a second time, with it being closer to making contact with its target this time. The only thing I knew at this point was that I was losing control of my spirit.  
  
. 


	3. Abandon

**Disclaimer**: I never really understood the purpose of saying this in every chapter, but I guess it makes sense. Anyway, don't own LOD, don't own anything but original characters and my own plot structure.  
  
Please review. Thank you  
  
"Dart...you're such an interesting human. Always willing to rush into obstacle with your eye on the prize and you'll kill anyone and anything to get to it. It's really funny, because you're becoming what you didn't want to. Personally though, I could careless about how you feel. You all are really mediocre, and none of you really understand what's truly happening. All you're seeing is some foolish uprising, but none of you have stopped to even consider the bigger picture. See Dart, it's nothing but a charade, a game. I could really kill you if I wanted to. In fact, I could kill you right now if I wanted to, but where's the fun in that Dart? I want you to understand what is truly happening before anyone kills you...so let's try this. You seem to care about Shana more than I imagined. I need you to take a trip to Hellena prison, followed by Kazas. I think you'll find more answers at Kazas than Hellena, but there's a bit of a favor involved. I'm feeling a bit lazy, and realized I left a chest at Hellena. I need you to fetch that for me. I'll be waiting outside the main entrance to Kazas at exactly midnight. You are permitted to do this with one other person. But I don't want it to be the girl, or that excuse for a king. Why not take that sharp shooter along with you...what was her name again? Oh that's right, Miranda. Keep this in mind Dart, I actually am in turn, doing you a favor, and your part of the bargain doesn't just end with retrieving the chest for me, but for not we'll leave it at that. If you betray me, if you think I won't know, I will. I have no tolerance for traitors Dart. And because of that, I am prepared to destroy your entire fort, just how you saw the first day we met. Remember Dart, you have until midnight. I suggest you leave out right away when you first get the chance," at that very instance, I shot out of my bed, and surveyed the entire room, and it made no sense to me. Every door was closed; every window was shut and locked. The only other person in the room with me was Shana and she was asleep.  
  
The sun was just rising outside, with a faint red band of light covering the horizon, but for the most part, the sky was filled with a dark blue. I quickly and quietly put on my clothes and armor. As I started to put on my left arm plate, I slipped from hands and hit the floor. I stood still, and watched as Shana only turned, and continued to sleep. I picked up the red armor, and put it on and left the room. I went to the kitchen, and not being surprised, Albert was in there, looking for something to eat. "Do you know how I long for a piece of meat that's not drenched in salt?"  
  
"Well then maybe you should cook a piece right after it's been cut."  
  
"That sounds like a plan. Dart, I know you not to be a morning person. Why are you awake now?"  
  
"I have some errands I have to run. I probably won't be back till tomorrow morning."  
  
"Oh, well there's no serious danger at this point. I could join you."  
  
"No, you need to stay here and train the men or something. I'll wait till Miranda wakes up, and I'll drag her along. Besides, I have a few things I need to talk to her about anyway."  
  
"Well, if that's what you truly want than I can't stop you," and for moment there was a brief period of silence.  
  
"Listen Albert, about yesterday..."  
  
"Dart, I don't know what's going on with you, and that Dragoon spirit anymore, but all I'm sure that it's not entirely your fault. So with that said, it is now seven o'clock so I have to start waking everyone up." Albert patted me on the back as he left the kitchen. Not wanting to waste anytime, I quickly searched the entire fort in hopes of Miranda was awake. The last place I checked was in the archery field. It was small open space in the back of the fort, surrounding by stone walls. As I walked through the entrance, Miranda was in her Dragoon state, and she had an arrow already set, and released it. The bow traveled through one tree, and became lodged in the one behind it. As she turned around to reach for another arrow, she noticed my presence.  
  
"Oh, hi Dart. I didn't notice you were there."  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"Um...I never got a chance to say thanks for yesterday. I really thought that was the end but..."  
  
"Don't mention it. But listen, do you think you can come with me to run a few errands."  
  
"Sure," Miranda then returned to her human state, an attached her bow, and arrows," just one question though. Exactly where are we going?"  
  
"Well, I have to go to Hellena prison, then Kazas," Miranda gave me a blank stare as if she was waiting for me to say something else.  
  
"Dart, you're kidding right?"  
  
"Well no. Why?"  
  
"Hellena isn't exactly property of ours. And Kazas has been abandoned for who knows how long now. Why in the world would you want to go to either of those places?"  
  
"I have a spy mission at Hellena, and I just wanted to check Kazas for anything useful or of value.  
  
"Oh...well if you say so." Miranda walked back inside the fort, and I followed as we walked all the way through the north exit. We readied two horses, and quickly rode out. We traveled through woods, cities, and maybe a swamp or two. We never made a single stop, only because Hellena was a ways from the fort, and time wasn't exactly on our side. I knew we were reaching our destination point as we quickly rode past Seles. We then rode through the forest, and stopped our horses on the road that led to the prison. Miranda jumped off her horse and looked up at me. "So, how do you want to go about doing this?"  
  
"Simple," after I tied my horse to a rock, I quickly transformed, and flew off towards the prison."  
  
"Dart you said a spy mission!" I wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. With either of us not having a watch, I looked at the sky, and knew that I was running out of time. I flew through the front gates and every soldier inside started to scramble for safety or a crossbow. At that point I remembered that he never told me exactly where the chest was, and I remembered how much of a maze the prison really was. I landed on the ground, and a dozen soldiers surrounded me ready to fight. I reached for my sword, and noticed that it wasn't there. They slowly began to close in and an arrow quickly struck one of the men through his heart. "Dart here!" Miranda flew over me, and threw down a sword. After I caught it, I wanted to make a quick escape. I concentrated, and the ground suddenly felt like it was boiling, and extremely hot. I quickly flew into the air, as everything around the men burst into flames. I started to fly off, but I noticed a cart was coming towards the front gates. I flew towards that direction and hid behind a stack of hay.  
  
"This isn't exactly the best time to be delivering something here," the delivery man looked at the soldier strangely.  
  
"Well I'm only doing as I'm told, and I was told that this hay, along with a chest needed to be delivered to Hellena prison before nightfall, "he walked back towards the horse, and pulled out a chest from the seat, and walked back towards the soldier. I quickly flew towards him and snatched the chest. Flying back high into the air, I yelled towards Miranda.  
  
"Miranda lets go," she heard me, and shot her last bow, and flew towards the entrance gate. I continued to fly through the sky past the horses.  
  
"Wait a minute Dart, what about the horses?"  
  
"Leave them, we don't have time." She continued to follow me as we flew over trees, villages, and cities. With little time to spare, we eventually reached a castle that was once lit with green with fire, and stood tall. Now the castle stood darker then ever, and looked half destroyed. Right outside the main entrance, there was someone standing. They wore a black cloak that touched the ground, with a hood. It sort of reminded me of Lloyd. I quickly landed on the ground and ran towards the man. I dropped the chest on the stairs in front of him. "Here, your package."  
  
"And you brought the right one too. I wasn't sure if you were going to take it from the delivery boy or not. Where's the girl?" as he asked that, Miranda landed behind me, and was in human state again. "Marvelous..." he brought up his left arm, and pointed it at Miranda. An arrow quickly shot out, and hit her in the arm. She tried to reach for her bow and arrow, but she fell to the ground, and it seemed she was unconscious.  
  
"What did you do to her?!" I drew out my sword and I was ready to attack.  
  
"Calm yourself, she's only sleeping, but if you want her to live, you will lower your sword," reluctantly, I followed his command, and lowered my sword to my side. "Now see, that wasn't difficult, now was it?" At that point, I had a very small tolerance, and his words were only adding to my frustration. I took one step forward, and the man put his hand to my chest, and somehow I was unable to move. Then suddenly, everything around me started to intensely glow red. "See Dart, at this rate, I can kill you. You're trying to use more energy than you have. If you continue to try to come towards me, it will make no difference to me if you die." I dropped to my knees, and tried to crawl towards the man, but he yanked my head back, by my hair. The red light continued to grow, and I could no longer keep my eyes open. "Dart, I need a helping hand; someone who can play mercenary. I know of your little mishaps, your random killing sprees to get to what you want, and that's exactly the type of person I'm looking for," he threw me towards the ground, and opened the chest. There was a small bottle inside that he picked up and walked towards Miranda. I tired to move but couldn't manage. Everything inside of me was burning in pain. He opened the bottle and kneeled next to Miranda. "This is a toxin that I've been working on for maybe a few weeks. Everything in it is so unstable that it can almost eat through anything, and I think the girl makes the perfect test subject, that is unless you're willing to meet my demands. See Dart, the spirit is slowly ceasing to recognize you as its owner, so why bother to continue to use it. Even if it did recognize you, look at how much vulnerable you are to certain things than you thought with it. I'm going to do you a favor and in turn you will meet my demands. I will remove the spirit, which will end the pain. And in turn, you will become my mercenary. You will perform any task that I give you, and I order that I give you. If you refuse, I will let this toxin eat through Miranda's face, but it won't stop from there. I will then destroy each of your friends, one by one, until you have nothing left. So what do you have to say Dart?" I struggled to nod my head. "Excellent," he then threw the bottle into the ground as the toxin steamed and ate through the cobblestone. He walked over to me, and placed his hand on my chest, and the Dragoon spirit slowly left my body, and the glowing red light slowly faded away. When he had full possession of it, he placed it in a pocket in his cloak. I rolled over on my stomach and knees, and coughed from the relief. "Now Dart, don't forget. I have no tolerance for betrayal of any form. There will be consequences if I you do betray me." He then picked me up and threw me into a wall. I watched as he walked towards Miranda, and dragged her inside of the castle. I tried to get up, but I couldn't manage to keep my eyes open any longer, and fell unconscious.  
  
"You're a new man Dart. This is now a new beginning for you, so let's start with a few changes. From this point, your name will no longer will be Dart. You will now be knows as student until I say different. You must earn your name. That will be the only change for now. In the meantime, rest up Dart, for you have a long day ahead of you." 


	4. New Lead

Sometime had passed, and with the absence of light in the room, I couldn't tell if it was day or night. My body finally had the feeling of energy surging through every vein, as if I was no longer drained. The first change I had noticed though was the absence of my red armor, replaced with cloth pants and shirt. As I began to stand, my new ruler entered the room.

"I glad to see that my pupil has finally regained his strength."

"Where's my original armor?"

"Oh, it's been disposed of. Its part of your past, a part that you will learn to forget. But do not fear, for I have a gift for you." The hooded figure then dropped massive black heap.

"I don't see anything."

"Yes, I know. It's pitch black armor. Extremely hard to see at night, which is always a good thing, because training starts now. You will suit up, and you will run from here to the edge of the woods and back. Do be careful though, for there are quite a few pesky rodents out there that can easily harm one with no sword."

"You're giving me armor without but not a sword?" I asked. The figure then laughed.

"The armor was a gift. One of the very few gifts you will be receiving. If it's a sword you want, you will earn it."

"And how long will that be?"

"Until I feel you are worth enough of wielding one. Now you had better start running because you will be back before sunrise."

Remembering the amount of pain that this person caused while I was a dragoon reminded me that he was no joke. I quickly suited up, and ran through what seemed like a door. The sounds of crickets and owls while running reminded me of some of the evening I would spend in the woods outside of Seles. More particular though, it reminded of one of the few times Shana would approach me while I was alone.

I was sitting on a rock under a favorite tree of mine that I had climbed since I was ten. She then walked over and looked right at my eyes. She told me that it was something about the way the light shined in them, that she would know that something was wrong. "You're always running off from the village now." She said.

I just scratched at the rock, and looked at the dirt. I didn't want to seem dismissive though. "Well, I've been thinking."

"About?"

"I've been thinking about my mom and dad. I was kind of young when I lost them, and it hurts. Ever since, I always have the image stuck in my head of sitting in the woods with my dad saying 'wait here.' And I waited, and I never saw him or my mother again, all because of some Black Monster."

"Dart, it's not your fault."

"I never said it was. But I just every time that I think about the, I feel as if I'm failing them."

"Dart," she said, but I didn't want to listen. I jumped up from the rock, with my fists clinched and a glare in my eyes,

"No, it's always Dart, Dart, Dart. No one seems to understand. You all didn't lose your parents and friends to some thing. I've lived with this too long now. So long, that I think it's finally time." I reached for my sword, latched it to my belt, and started to walk down the road through the woods.

"Dart!" she yelled. It was the final thing I heard her yell until I rescued her from Hellena prison.

After thinking about my past, I realized I reached the edge of the woods, and in the distance, the light was slowly coming over the horizon. Not wanting to feel the pain again, I turned, and dashed through the woods, and I as I began to sprint, a powerful gust came through the trees and knocked me backwards. I started to stand, but I watched as the outline of a huge shadow moved across the ground. The sound of a large bird then raced through the air. It dawned on me then, that bird was looking for food, and must have spotted me, because the sound became louder every second.

I staggered to my feet, and sprinted through bushes, dodging branches. I looked back, and I saw no shadow. My stomach knotted as my heart raced, and I felt as if I should look up. My eyes quickly shot upward, and the huge bird was swooping down through the foliage to catch me. I dropped, and rolled into a near by bush as his talons missed my shoulder. It flew back up in the air, and turned around to make another attempt. I stood again, and started to run back to wherever I left from for the jog. The sound of the birds squawk and part roar rang through the air as it began to plunge towards the ground for prey. Before I dove for the second time to save my life, an arrow stuck in a tree caught my attention. I quickly snatched the arrow, and ducked behind the tree as the bird attempted to talon at me. After continuing to run, I reached an open field, and panicked because the humongous thing could easily tear me from limb to limb. As the though ran through my head, the birds call once again sounded, and he went into his dive again. As his talons started to enter my skin, I thrust the arrow into its underside. The bird quickly released me and flew off. Not too long afterwards, it then fell back into the woods.

I started to sit from being relieved that I survived, then noticed that the sunrise was starting to reach this side of the world. I dashed back into the woods, and ran for the place. Upon reaching it, I was hit by a massive force that knocked me to the ground. I raised my head an noticed that it was _him_.

"When I say be back by sunrise, I mean be back when its still dark outside."

"Well the sunrise didn't completely reach here yet," I said as I pulled myself up from the ground. After fully standing, my face was smacked by a powerful force sending back to the ground. After struggling to look up, I noticed that force was nothing more than a punch.

"I thought we had an understanding of one another. I give the commands, you follow them, and everything works perfectly." He then turned around and stood quietly before saying, "However, I did see that little spectacle you had with the bird, and I must say it was quite impressive how you handled that. Especially since you don't have a sword." Before he walked back into what now I knew was a barn, he tossed a heavy book over his shoulder, landing inches away from my face.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's a book of highly complicated magic. You will learn to perform the most difficult of them by tomorrow." He then tossed a small cloth bag. "It's magic dust. It will help you perform them easier until you can learn to perform magic without them." He continued to walk into the house, but stopped in the threshold. "Oh and one more thing. Don't fail me again." He then disappeared into the darkness of the place.

I stood, and looked at the cloth bag and book sitting on the ground. Not wanting to waste to time, I grabbed both items and headed out into the woods to practice. After finding a comfortable rock, I dropped the bag on the ground, and opened the book. The pages that contained the important spells had been marked with an orange dash at the top of the page. The first spell had read "Aloud in your head, repeat the following scripture. Failure to pronounce perfectly could result in the wrong spell or damage to the caster. Practice aloud before trying." After the instruction was the scripture were a bunch of letters that had seemed to be randomly combined. Not too long afterwards, I figured out that these random letters were names of past winglies and dragoons. "Rafat nailuj rovid." I whispered the scripture at first, having no clue what it would do. It sounded as if I understood how to pronounce it.

I wanted to slack off for a while, and I laid down on the rock until I heard what sounded like something falling. I sat up and noticed that in the distance, trees were rapidly falling down. I also could hear what sounded like a faint roar. The roar sounded as if it became louder, along with the sound of falling trees. I knew the bird was headed towards me, and this time I was unarmed. I looked around for another arrow, and then noticed the cloth bag on the ground. I quickly reached for it, and continued to whisper the scripture. I didn't know how to use the dust, so being ignorant I took some out, and rubbed it around in my hands, and placed my hands forward. The bird was still rampaging towards me, and when it was only inches away, I said the scripture in my hand, and a pitch black light orb formed around both my hands and shot forward at the bird. The tiny orb of light then morphed to fit the birds shape. The bird quickly fell to the ground, and the longer the orb remained attached to the creature, the darker it became. Eventually the orb then shot back at me, and into my chest, only it didn't morph to my shape. It felt as if I had gained power. I looked at the bird and it had turned to pure stone.

The feeling . . . the feeling of having the ability to take from something so easily felt grand. I felt as if I craved more. I wanted more power. I picked up the book and the bag, and walked back towards the barn


	5. Reunion

"You were gone for quite some time. I was beginning to worry that I might have had to find you." I simply stared and tossed him the bag of dust, and the book. "I'm taking it that it was actually useful."

"Yeah," was all I said, followed by walking towards the loft ladder to sit.

"So did the spell work?" he asked. I only looked up and nodded. "Well then I guess we'll have to get you some more complicated spells then, or maybe more intensive training." There was then a brief moment of silence. "You are different. Before when you woke up, you were full of questions, and now, you just sit there, with nothing to say at all. "

"When you get attacked by a demonic bird, then we'll see how much you have to say."

I looked down, and a book slid right under the chair.

"So is that what you killed? I have to say, that's quite impressive for a first try. You're ready for your second and final stage of training then."

"When hell freezes over . . ."

"My, my. Someone is annoyed. I can't seem to understand the sudden change in your behavior. And despite the change, you still seem to be following the little agreement we had." He approached me, and I jumped from the chair and snatched him by the collar of his cloak.

"You've turned my life into a living hell hole, and now you wanna' give me some crap about I've changed. You literally almost killed me, along with that massive piece of flying feathers."

"What was our agreement pupil?"

"I have yet to betray you. I said this is full of shit. No more comments, no more questions. Just give me the training, and what ever it is I need to earn, and then maybe things will be better." I released his cloak and walked towards the barn doors. My foot stepped over the threshold as a loud clang, followed by a cloud of moving dust caught my attention. I turned around and a large sword was thrust into the barn floor.

"It's a sword. Wield it, perfectly." He dropped a book. "Spells. Learn them. Twenty. Any twenty you want. Finish that, and your training will continue." He came towards the barn doors, glared at me, and continued to walk off.

I didn't feel like wasting time because I had wanted to continue the training. I walked up to the massive piece of bright metal, and wrapped both hands around the handle. I heaved the sword out of the ground, and staggered five steps to the right. The staggering shifted the weight of the sword, and forced me to swing around. I staggered a few more steps then thrust it into the ground again. I climbed up the loft and found some bandages. After wrapping my palms in them tightly, I hopped down from the loft and tried to wield the sword again.

About a week went by before I could heave the sword over my shoulder with no trouble, but I still had trouble swinging. Someday, around noon, I picked up the book, and chose five random spells I would work at. I managed to cast all but one spell, which I decided I'd work at later. I stopped for a second and thought of everything in the past from rescuing to Shana, to meeting everyone, to saving the world from the re-birth. All of it, now, meant very little to nothing. I inhaled, exhaled deeply, dropped the book, and heaved the sword out of the ground over my shoulder.

Two weeks afterward I started training myself by running through the woods and slashing and casting spells on marked trees and bushes. During the process, I timed myself, and would do this over and over, until I managed to finish in under a minute. Still, I felt that I had not accomplished enough, almost as if everything I was doing was superficial. The feel of power and strength wasn't satisfying enough. Even though I wanted more, I placed my feelings aside, and went back to the barn.

"Welcome back pupil."

"Yeah. So what's next on the agenda?"

"You can wield the sword?" I swung it for him as a demonstration. "And the spells?"

"Thirty one spells memorized, five being highly useful."

"Then we're doing well. Now since you've completed the training portion, its time for your tests."

"Sounds good."

"I'm glad you think that. Test one. There's a fort not too far from this barn. It's down in the valley past the woods. Clean it out."

"Wait, you want me clear it out."

"Yes, kill as many soldiers as you can."

"Do I have to,"

"You have been involved in warfare for quite some time now. Killing shouldn't be a new concept. Trust me. Old habits die hard. It wont be anything new for you."

"You want it gone so bad, you destroy it." I felt a swift punch in my chest, then a powerful force that hit me from behind. It knocked me off my feet, and I sailed through the air, and slid through the dirt after crashing. I struggled to get up, and saw _him_ standing over me.

"I'm glad that you feel strong enough that you should be able to give me commands. You agreed. You agreed that you would follow any order I give. And now, you are betraying that order. I have to know, why, are you still resisting this. Everything I've given you, and you still feel the need to be a pain." I saw something come towards me, but too quick so I couldn't react. I flew across the room into a wall. "Do you not want any of this. If so, by all means, feel free to say so any point in time. I have no problem with watching you and the rest of your pathetic friends squirm, just as we first met."

"Where's . . . the fort again?" I struggled to ask.

"I'm glad that we can see eye to eye. Past the woods, down in the valley. Go, and return before sundown."

I walked towards the center of the barn to grab my sword, then headed for the woods. After minutes of brush cutting, and sliding down hills, I could see the fort from the top of the valley. I charged down the valley, then for the fort. They saw me coming from the watch towers and sounded bell alarms. I could see them lining up bowmen at the wall, readying their bows. I placed my hand outward, and shot a block lit ball of energy at the entire wall, and everything turned to stone. I swung the sword through the entire stone fort entrance, and continued to charge through the fort. Numerous soldiers drew swords, and attempted to attack. I slashed and slit soldier by soldier.

One livid soldier came out of a room yelling. "What the hell . . .?" He turned around, and noticed me, "It's you.!" I realized that it was the same man I had fought who had combined the blue and gold dragoon spirits.

"Well then," he said as he drew a sword, "I guess I get to reap my revenge sooner than I had planned."

"Yeah, I guess you do."


End file.
